San Diego companies say they're reinventing the frothy drinks and making them healthier

Beaming, with a retail store in Del Mar and a commercial kitchen in Vista, is one of several companies working to reinvent the juice category with fresher juices that have more vegetables than fruits.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda

Beaming, with a retail store in Del Mar and a commercial kitchen in Vista, is one of several companies working to reinvent the juice category with fresher juices that have more vegetables than fruits.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda

Chef Veronica Wheat of Chef V's stands in her new kitchen located in San Marcos. Over the next few weeks, the company will relocate their operations from Mira Mesa to their new retail store and kitchen in San Marcos.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda

Juice for the sake of nutrition used to be something health nuts made at home, slaving for hours over blenders and presses in the privacy of their own beet- and carrot-stained kitchens.

But three San Diego companies are trying to bring juice — the organic, super-fresh, revitalizing kind — to the masses in convenient-but-expensive bottles.

San Diego-based Suja, Beaming and Chef V’s Organic Green Drink have different approaches, but they share a common goal, fueled by their access to fresh, organic produce year-round: To make consuming nutritious fruits and vegetables as easy as going to a fast-food joint.

Until recently, juice conjured up images of sugar-sweet fruity beverages that bear more resemblance to soda than they do to their vegetative origins.

Fruit juice accounts for about $5 billion of the beverage market, according to data from IBISWorld, but its popularity has waned in recent years as new research points to the detrimental effects of too much sugar in the diet.

Ten years ago, juice was the seventh-most popular food item consumed by Americans, said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group. Now it’s No. 9, between salty snacks and cereal. While it’s still a staple, Balzer said juice is due for a reinvention.

“One thing that the American diet demands and always demands, is new things, or new versions of things they already know,” he said. “What I don’t know is who is going to provide that new thing and make it contemporary.”

While Chef V’s and Beaming don’t like to use the term “juice,” all three companies are working to reinvent the product with low-sugar, vegetable-heavy alternatives that bypass the traditional nutrient-killing pasteurization process. They are critics of fruit-heavy drinks with long shelf lives, and they use terms like “superfoods,” “raw,” “cleansing,” “organic,” “non-GMO” and “cold-pressed.”

Suja and Beaming use the newly popular cold pressure technique, which involves crushing the produce together, then subjecting it to tremendous pressure to squeeze the liquid out, leaving a pulp that is virtually dry. Advocates for cold-pressing say it produces a better-tasting and more nutritious nectar. Chef V’s blends its veggies with a splash of apple juice.

Their innovative concoctions come at a cost, though: Between $4.99 for 12 oz. and $29.99 for a gallon.

Although pricey, their products are hitting the market at a time when discretionary spending is rebounding from the recession, and they may just revitalize the declining industry.

But celebrity nutritionist Kate Geagan warns in a blog post for TV personality Dr. Oz that cold-pressed juices often contain more calories and lack the fiber of whole fruits and vegetables. Their health claims are ahead of science, she adds.

Still, San Diego’s newest generation of juicers are making their marks on the new frontier.